[DISCONTINUED, chap. 1 of 5] Short and sweet. A quiet little story exploring the relationships between Hikaru, Akari, and Akira. The actual pairing is OPEN TO INTERPRETATION! Akari, Akira, or... a threesome? XD

Notes: Yes, just a "quiet little story." Seriously,
nothing really happens. There's not even any kissing, just a whole lot of
serious conversation… (Watch, everyone presses the back button now…) I
purposely made it ambiguous and open to interpretation, cuz to tell the truth,
I'm a fan of both pairings. ^_^ (Tho I think I originally intended it as a
Hikaru/Akari… There's really not enough of those around. Good ones, at least.)
Oh, and it's also multi-chapter (for once), with a continuous plot (Yes, there is
a plot! – if it can be called that). Wow, must be on a roll lately.

BTW, everyone's twenty-ish years old here. Not that it
matters… much. And the poems (and translations, which in my opinion kinda suck,
but it's not like I can do better…) were taken from a site: japanpoem.com or
something – I forgot. (Oops.)

~The Moon's Lament~

Yasurawade Better to have slept

Nenamashi mono o Care-free, than to keep vain watch

Sayo fukete Through the passing night,

Katabuku made no Till I saw the lonely moon

Tsuki o mishi kana
Traverse her descending path

-
Lady Akazone Emon

She often
stayed up late into the night, gazing out her window at the house across the
street. She wasn't sure why she still did so, after all these years.

While he
had never actually moved out to live on his own, these days he was rarely home
anyway, instead always traveling everywhere, to other cities, even other
countries as his job required him to. He had grown to become a very busy young
man, something she could have never foreseen just ten years ago. She remembered
a time when they had been so close… Yet with each passing year, she felt as if
they grew further and further apart. It saddened her immensely.

And so,
night after night, she sat beside her bedroom window, watching, just watching.

She
wondered why she even bothered, when her watching was always in vain. It was a
waste of time, really, time that could have been better spent sleeping or
studying.

But still
she watched, and she hoped. It frustrated and confused her to no end, the fact
that she was actually capable of doing such an illogical thing. She was a
bright, sensible girl, not one of those weepy heroines in the romance novels
her friends were always reading. So what if she was in love with her childhood playmate?
So what if her friends thought the very idea absolutely romantic? She didn't
intend to pine away pointlessly for something she knew she could never have.

Tonight,
though, she was tired. She had had two exams that day, and had yet another one
coming up the next day. She had gone out for dinner earlier to celebrate a
friend's birthday, and before that she had gone shopping for presents. She was
exhausted, damn it, and she refused to squander away her time chasing after
elusive dreams.

She
couldn't fall asleep.

She sighed,
stood, and opened the window slightly to let in some air. It was almost summer,
but the nights were long, and unbearably stifling. It seemed to her the silver
moon laughed at her from its majestic throne in the endless black sky. And she
thought of the stars, hidden by the lights of the city at night, and she felt
something wet trickle down her cheek.

She had
always thought her love for him was just a schoolgirl's crush, a silly
infatuation. It was only recently that she had realized that Shindo Hikaru had
completely and utterly stolen away her heart. To her, he had become something
untouchable, a star far too brilliant, too radiant for her to grasp, no longer
the sweet little boy she'd teased and needled as a young girl. She missed the
old Hikaru desperately. And yet…

Out of the
corner of her eye, she saw a lone figure strolling down the sidewalk. And she gasped.
And rushed downstairs.

This chapter was inspired by the scene in one of the closing
sequences (or was it an opening sequence?) where Akari's looking at the red sky
and something (a bird, I'm pretty sure…) flies by… (Jeez, I have such crappy
memory…*_*) It also happens to be extremely unedited and reads very choppily. O
well.

Also, I have no idea if Hikaru's house is actually across
the street from Akari's. I don't even remember if they're neighbors. Seriously,
I don't remember at all. *sweatdrop* Gomen! (Told you I had crappy memory…)

Oh, and next chapter will be a fluffy Akira scene. I swear!
Hikaru's OOCness will also be explained in further detail, I hope…

Finally, updates will be rather… sporadic. I'm busy and physics
is NOT fun. Argh. Currently studying "classical field theory." Lol, it's really
not as hard as it sounds. Just… sorta. It's basically a whole bunch of
integrals that make my head hurt. I love my professor tho, he's cool. (He plays
go! ^_^ Seriously!) But his tests are FRICKIN. HARD. (Probably because I can
never remember all the damn formulas… GEE I WONDER WHY…)

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.